- Open administration
- AOC training
- Citizen services
AOC Support advances towards a digital support and training model: 2025 review
In the article “Reducing bureaucracy and digitalization: a vision for the future of construction" published a the News, the magazine of Cateb (Barcelona College of Technical Architects) and signed by Raúl Heras, technical architect, the author analyzes the main administrative bottlenecks that affect the construction sector.
The article reflects on the pursuit of excellence as a personal and professional driving force, but also as an often empty concept when contrasted with the bureaucratic and fragmented reality of the Catalan Administration, especially in the field of construction. The distance between political discourse and the effective functioning of public services generates frustration, inefficiency and loss of citizen trust.
In this context, the relevance of role of the Open Administration Consortium of Catalonia (AOC)As its managing director explains, Miquel Estape, the mission of the AOC is to ensure that interacting with the administration is just as easy in a small town as in a big city, eliminating territorial inequalities. To achieve this, the AOC has promoted key services such as EACAT, idCAT, the electronic invoice, Via Oberta or the electronic signature, which have generated savings of more than 700 million euros per year in time and resources over the last decade.
However, Estapé is very clear in his diagnosis: Digitalization has progressed faster than administrative simplification. In an interview cited in the article, he warns that “we have digitized many old processes without reviewing them”, which has given rise to electronic files that are not always more agile or efficient. This explains why the principle of "once and done" continues to be violated, forcing citizens and technicians to repeatedly provide data that the administration already has.
Estapé also focuses on another key deficit: the lack of open, comparable and shared data on actual processing timesWithout this information, it is difficult to identify good practices and extend them at a national level. Although some municipalities have managed to reduce deadlines thanks to good organization and involved teams, these experiences cannot be replicated without a common and interoperable framework.
The article emphasizes that the AOC already provides the tools and digital infrastructure, but that, as Estapé insists, the real challenge is not technological but strategic and organizationalIn his words: “It is not enough to accumulate digital tools; we need to redefine processes and think in terms of the country”This involves rethinking workflows, standardizing criteria and placing the administrative simplification as the central axis of public action.
This debate is especially critical for the construction sector, where municipal fragmentation, lack of standardization and poor data quality generate legal uncertainty and multiply unnecessary efforts. The article advocates moving towards a ecosystem of interoperable urban and building data, which allows the use of technologies such as AI, guided assistants or digital twins, with specific benefits in costs, energy efficiency and quality of service.
In conclusion, The digital transformation of the Catalan Administration must be a structural reform oriented towards public service., not a simple deployment of tools. The ultimate goal is clear and socially relevant: save time, reduce costs, guarantee legal certainty, improve access to housing and generate trust through open data that truly serves citizens.